Tim Ferris: 3 Ways (plus a podcast of the other 5) To Dealing With Haters

I was called into an office one afternoon and was told that I had been inferring & implicating other individuals in my podcast (apparently inflammatory comments about ones’ intentions within Thailand) and I was told to stop doing my podcast and to delete all of my episodes.

Yeah. Right.

We’ve all dealt with criticism in the work place, at home, on the streets, and even in my neighborhood back in Las Vegas which everyone was predominantly African American. Yes, I’m African American, and other African Americans hated me because I had a job. They said I was an ‘uncle tom.’

With a couple examples above, I came across a section in Tim Ferris’ book that I just HAD TO COVER!

Some simple steps of dealing with the so-called “haters” who show love in a very precarious way.

#1 – It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it, but how many do get it.

There was an instance I had that I became discouraged because I got about 6 podcast plays a day. One of my loyal listeners, a girl from Denpensar in Bali, asked me….”why haven’t you made any podcasts lately?” I said, “well, no one is listening.”

She replied angrily saying, “ummm, regardless of how many plays you do or don’t have, what about your listeners who are waiting for your voice in what could be a time of crisis in their lives?”

Wow. I never realized that.

“These people become your strongest marketing force, and the rest takes care of itself. The millions or billions who don’t get it don’t matter. Focus on the few who do.” – Tim Ferris

Don’t become discouraged because of what you’re doing isn’t a top hit; instead, focus on those loyal people who are tuned into you instead.

#2 – 10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it and treat it as math.

You mentally have to prepare yourself. For every 1000 followers, 100 of them will be “assholes” as Tim Ferris said. Treat it as math. On top of that, know that 1% will be absolutely off their head and demean you anyways they can.

A good story of this is a YouTube (once well known) Vince G. This was a sad story of someone who joined forces with another sensation, and him ultimately parting ways with this particular individual. What ensued was him making a channel and every time he posted a video, not only did he get a 5:1 dislike to like ratio, but inflammatory comments such as, “I hope you die.”

This lead him to dropping off the face of the planet for months and luckily he did some soul searching and joined forces as an editor with someone else.

A more recent story is Tim Ferris himself wrote an article in terms of cutting weight before a UFC weigh in or whatever, and every last comment on his page was, “I respected you, but not after this.” Some of the “apparent” loyal followers had fallen off due to something that considered the norm in prized fighting. These types of things can steer ultra-successful people away from their goals because people not liking a simple article.

This is that group of people.

#3 When it doubt – starve it with oxygen.

Here are three ways to deal with online criticism….

Starve it of oxygen (ignore it)—90%

Pour gasoline on it (promote it)—8%

Engage with trolls after too much wine (and really regret it)—2%

About three years ago, there was a racist comment (as most times) on a sports forum and I responded to this particular troll in a way I shouldn’t have. My profile was out there to the world whereas I received 15 messages from people spewing hateful rhetoric to my “other” inbox and me getting banned for 16 hours from Facebook. However, the origin (original poster’s) comment had no defamation or hate speech, according to Facebook.

There was a particular individual who wasn’t happy. A father (apparently) of two somewhere Florida who literally stalked me for the ensuing 18 months, trying to figure out where I work and emailed a variety of people with a snapshot of what I said.

This is called pouring gasoline on something in the wrongest of ways. Luckily, this particular individual finally stopped and vanished, but the lesson was learnt – stay the “hell” away from idle gossiping pages, especially sports forums where my friend calls it “troll city.” HA!

With that being said, people, there’s five other steps and this blog post is already too long (oops), so if you guys want to hear me speak about this in its entirety, my podcast down below is just shy of 30 minutes but goes into more detail of the others. So, if you guys are intrigued, tune in! If not, stay tuned for my 2am (Bangkok, Thailand time) blog post on what else?! NUTRITION! It’s been too long!